An Investigation into Teaching English to Gifted Individuals: Giving Voice to Turkish EFL Teachers

Abstract

Foreign language learning process of gifted individuals plays a critical role in both their self-development and academic life. However, EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers may encounter various challenges while teaching to gifted individuals. The purpose of the present research is to reveal the opinions of EFL teachers in Science and Art Centers (SACs) on the challenges they encounter in teaching English, find out possible sources for these difficulties, and their solutions and recommendations. In total, 21 EFL teachers working in different SACs in Turkiye participated in the study. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview based on three main themes: a) the challenges the participants have faced, b) the participants’ views on the source of these problems, and c) their suggested strategies to cope with the mentioned challenges. Content analysis was carried out to analyze the data. The qualitative findings demonstrated that the EFL teachers experienced similar challenges including the lack of an established curriculum, insufficient educational technological equipments and appropriate materials for language teaching, having students with different levels of English proficiency in the same groups, and having long working hours.

Keywords

• science and art centre
• gifted individuals
• giftedness
• english as a foreign language (efl)
• turkish efl teachers